It's the fundraiser that Disney fans happily and willingly get out of bed at 3 a.m. to take part in. The one that people actually schedule their Southern California vacations around, with some participants flying in from as far away as Texas, Illinois and Connecticut. Which event am I talking about...

25 years ago when "The Little Mermaid" first arrived in theaters, The Walt Disney Company really wasn't ready to capitalize on how successful that hand-drawn animated feature would become. And I mean REALLY not ready. If you dropped by your local Disney Store during the 1989 holiday season...

35 years ago today, Disneyland 's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad officially opened the public. And the very first Guests were then able to climb aboard the I.M. Brave & U.R. Daring for the "Wildest Ride in the Wilderness." Zooming along 2,780 feet of track at speeds that sometime reached...

Given that we're right in the middle of an early cold spell up here in New Hampshire, I'm thinking that now would be a good time to bring up how the folks who run Disney's Hollywood Studios ' aren't quite ready to "Let (It) Go" of that theme park's " Frozen Summer...

You've no doubt already heard about all of the box office records that " Frozen " has broken over the past eight months (With the most recent one being the 16 weeks that this Walt Disney Animation Studios production spent as the No. 1 film in Japan. "Frozen" sold over $240 million...

When it comes to the Walt Disney Parks & Resorts , it's kind of a tradition that good enough isn't really good enough. Case in point: " Pirates of the Caribbean ." When Walt Disney first envisioned bringing buccaneers into his first theme park in the late 1950s, he was thinking...

For music fans, it's all about being able to say that they were there at the Newport Folk Festival when Dylan went electric . For baseball fans, it's being able to say that they were at Dodger Stadium when Sandy Koufax pitched his perfect game . But when it comes to theme park fans, what do they...

This ain't your Dad's Walt Disney Company anymore. Sure, every so often, you'll see the Company fund the construction of some massive immersive environment like Cars Land at Disney California Adventure Park or that AVATAR-inspired "land" which finally officially broke ground at...

You know, as I sit and watch footage of Shia LaBeouf behaving like a jackass at the Berlin Film Festival or hear yet another story about how Justin Bieber continues his transition from talented tween to delusional jerk , I wonder: How did Shirley Temple do it? Shirley Temple on the red carpet at the...

So just how far did the " Saving Mr. Banks " production team go when it came to replicating the look & the feel of a early 1960s version of Walt Disney Studios and Disneyland Park ? Pretty darned far. Or so says Becky Cline , the Director of the Walt Disney Archives . "When the Studio...

You have to admit that Disney "Frozen" has already had a pretty spectacular run at the box office. Over the past five weeks, this Walt Disney Animation Studios production has earned an estimated $248.4 million domestically . And then when you favor in the $250 million worth of tickets that...

SuperGrover22 wrote in yesterday with a Why For question: Copyright Ballantine Books. All rights reserved I just finished reading your review of Brian Jay Jones ' " Jim Henson: The Biography ." Can you please explain why Michael Eisner seemed so eager to get his hands on the Sesame Street...

So where exactly -- in the great holiday scheme of things -- does Disneyland Park 's latest attempt at a seasonal overlay fall? Is the Jingle Cruise that Xmas gift which you've always dreamed of getting or more of an itchy sweater? Changing a single letter makes a really big difference at this...

So when Jim Henson finally signed the Muppets over to The Walt Disney Company, where exactly did the deal go down? New York City? London? LA? Nope. According to Brian Jay Jones , the author of " Jim Henson: The Biography " ( Ballantine Books , September 2013), this fateful meeting actually...

You think -- what with all the attention that he's been getting lately -- you'd think that the Headless Horseman would have a bigger head. If he had a head, I mean. Copyright 2013 FOX and its related entities. All rights reserved To explain: Until relatively recently, if you were looking for...

So how long has Walt Disney Animation Studios been trying to bring " The Snow Queen " to the big screen? Would you believe 70 years? Concept painting for the aborted Hans Christian Andersen bio pic that Walt Disney and Samuel Goldwyn once considered collaborating on. Copyright Disney Enterprises...

It's been a busy couple of days, Disney news-wise. With all sorts of official announcements being made and weird rumors bubbling up. So as a special Columbus Day treat, I thought that it might be fun to dig down into this pile and then offer some additional information about some of the stories that...

For those of you who are keeping tabs on which classic Disney characters have been popping up on ABC 's " Once Upon A Time ," this Sunday's episode really is a must-see. Why For? Well, since Emma & the crew from Storybrooke are wandering all over Neverland searching for Henry, who...

Next month (September 20th, to be exact) will mark the two year anniversary of the announcement that " ... Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide is joining forces with visionary filmmaker James Cameron and Fox Filmed Entertainment to bring the world of AVATAR to life at Disney parks." Copyright...

Director John Landis clearly has a soft spot when it comes to theme parks. Want proof? Check out that "When in Hollywood, Visit Universal Studios (Ask for Babs)" card which Landis used to have tacked on to the end credits of his feature films back in the late 1970s / early 1980s. Or the fact...